absolutely safe if you leave it in the trunk. In fact, I think that in
all ordinary cases it is safer for me to carry my money in my pocket
than to leave it in my trunk in my room. It is only when we are going
among crowds that it is safer to leave it in our rooms; but there is no
absolute and perfect safety for it any where."

"I don't see," said Rollo, "how they can possibly get the money out so
from a deep pocket without our knowing it."

"It is very strange," said Mr. George; "but I believe the London
pickpockets are the most skilful in the world. Sometimes they go in
gangs, and they contrive to make a special pressure in the crowd, in a
narrow passage, or at a corner, and then some of them jam against the
gentleman they are going to rob, pretending that they are jammed by
others behind them, and thus push and squeeze him so hard on every side
that he does not feel any little touch about his pocket; or, by the time
he does feel and notice it, the purse is gone."

"Yes," said Rollo, "that is exactly the way it was with me.

"But there is one thing I could have done," said Rollo. "If I had put my
purse in my inside jacket pocket, and buttoned up the jacket tight, then
they could not possibly have got it."

"Yes," said Mr. George, "they have a way of cutting through the cloth
with the little sharp point of the knife which they have in a ring on
one of their fingers. With this they can cut through the cloth any where
if they feel a purse underneath, and take it out without your knowing
any thing about it till you get home."

"I declare!" said Rollo. "Then I don't see what I could do."

"No," replied Mr. George, "there is nothing that we can do to guard
absolutely against the possibility of losing our property when we are
travelling--or in any other case, in fact. There is a certain degree of
risk that we must incur, and various losses in one way or another will
come. All we have to do is to exercise the right degree of precaution,
neither too much nor too little, and then submit good naturedly to
whatever comes."

* * * * *

This is the end of the story of Rollo's being robbed, except that, the
next morning after the conversation above described was held, Rollo
found on his table, when he got up and began to dress himself, a small
package folded up in paper, with a little note by the side of it. He
opened the note and read as follows:--

DEAR ROLLO: From the moment that yo